Patrol cars are on the road on day. Besides lunch and doing their duties, it's not like they just take a break on get out of the car. The fun part of being on call 12 hours a day...

Their job is to enforce the rules, not your opinion of them...

There has to be rules on these not for us normal people, but the stupid ones....a growing population as it is. Sure you should text your life story, as the cars will just get out of your way. Can't tell you what I see every day....it's that part of the population we have to worry about!

Just the way I see it, as I have some police buddies. They work hard for their money. But I know that this does not work with every officer in every city....just how we do things here.

Might need to become a firefighter and grab a flame suit..

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“The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing.”

I thought I would start a thread about an incident I encountered last week.

Background: I am currently a patrol officer with 30 yrs experience. Cell phone use while driving is illegal and this includes texting/talking or holding any wireless communication device while driving. Driving is included to be stopped at a red light. In order to lawfully use your device, you must pull off to the side of the road, put your car in Park.

I feel that cell phone use while driving is an epidemic and clearly constitutes distracted driving.

Incident: I am driving a marked police cruiser and observe a driver stopped at a red light clearly talking on the cell phone. I pull the driver over and charge the driver with appropriate offence. The driver began to tell me that it wasn't fair because the driver's child had called for a ride home from school. We talked for a bit about blue tooth and hands free. But the point that struck me was that the driver felt that they were entitled to speak on the phone due to the nature of the call.

I did not start this thread for Bitoger's to tell me I should have warned the driver. I would like to hear views from other drivers about why they text/talk while driving. Is the call or text that important?

Thanks for taking the time to read this thread and I look forward to your responses.

I see people texting/talking while driving all the time. Only texting while driving is illegal in my state.

The companies like Google, Apple, and the telecommunications companies will win this fight via driverless cars (Google talks safety but under the premise that it should be safe to drive while using their services).

Frankly I'm surprised you pulled them. In my state it's usually an 'add-on' offense. Kudos to you for enforcing the law.

Agreed. All cell phones should have jammers installed and turned on permanently. I dislike cell phones intensely, so I think that would be great!

lets say your wife or child is driving home at night, and they think they are being followed. They have a passenger with them. Do you think it would be great for them to pull over and turn the car off to call for help?

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On the internet, people can be anything they want. Why do so many choose to be stupid?

Under the law in most jurisdictions, that could probably be considered an emergency. So, the driver could probably get away with it. But, in your scenario, you said the wife or child had a passenger. Is this hypothetical passenger incapable of using the cell phone?

If there was a jammer, of course there would be a problem. Like I said, though, if I were king of the world, cell phones would be equipped with jammers from the factory and would be expensive bricks.

Agreed. All cell phones should have jammers installed and turned on permanently. I dislike cell phones intensely, so I think that would be great!

lets say your wife or child is driving home at night, and they think they are being followed. They have a passenger with them. Do you think it would be great for them to pull over and turn the car off to call for help?

No, I think it would be a good idea for them to drive to the police station...

Well, I use a hands free headset and talk on the cell phone while driving. Not always practical to pull 70 ft of truck off and find a nice convenient place to park. I got into hands free headsets long before this whole distracted driving with cellphones really became a major blip on the radar. I probably text 3 times a month and that is not while driving. I like email if things are written. If someone has something to say, call.

Going to extremes like jammers and such is overkill if there every was one. As was mentioned, what of passengers using a cell? How does the phone know if it is the being used by a person behind the wheel or the back seat? And then, what of CB use in moving vehicles? We cannot legislate good sense, so let's just carpet bomb the populace with regulations, laws, and jammers. But that doesn't seem surprising. The common ideology now is to have the government protect us from ourselves.

Well, I use a hands free headset and talk on the cell phone while driving. Not always practical to pull 70 ft of truck off and find a nice convenient place to park. I got into hands free headsets long before this whole distracted driving with cellphones really became a major blip on the radar. I probably text 3 times a month and that is not while driving. I like email if things are written. If someone has something to say, call.

Going to extremes like jammers and such is overkill if there every was one. As was mentioned, what of passengers using a cell? How does the phone know if it is the being used by a person behind the wheel or the back seat? And then, what of CB use in moving vehicles? We cannot legislate good sense, so let's just carpet bomb the populace with regulations, laws, and jammers. But that doesn't seem surprising. The common ideology now is to have the government protect us from ourselves.

Again I ask, why is it necessary for even a passenger to use a cell phone in a moving vehicle?...though I'm no proponent of big brothering, I'd rather have the gov step in on this issue than just continuing to do nothing while the problem continues to get worse...

.....choose which laws one obeys.... PRECISELY! I used to go sailing through the traffic as what is called an "aggressive" driver. Having done a 180 degree turn and bought a Prius several years ago, I find that obeying the speed limit has a wonderful byproduct in adding miles to my gallons....

Besides, when the populace as a whole decides it only needs obey the laws each individual thinks applies to him or her, we are going downhill rapidly as a society. Violence rises, accidents profliferate, arrogance is the norm. Of course, I do remember tales of a little incident at the beginning of our country called the American Revolution wherein our forefathers did just that!

As I work at not being bunted off a bridge by overpowered pickup trucks, anyone needing to contact me by phone can wait until the end of my 25 minute commute.

But, one thing that causes people to pick and choose.... not seeing the sense in some of the laws as to how they are applied. It is asinine to blanket legislate things and expect the world to just shuffle along like it is a good thing.

Case in pont. I could be operating my pickup down the gravel road I live on, or I may have just turned onto the 2 lane highway, and the wife may call me that cattle have gotten out. Now, by the strict interpretation of the law as some would like it here, I would be in clear violation by taking that call, or I might not even be able to if the phone was made inoperable if the vehicle is moving. But, if I didn't, someone's life could be jeopardized if cattle got on the roadway and a motorist hit one. So, how do you apply your jammer type of mindset to that scenario, which is very common in rural areas. That's ok. The motorist ended up with 800 lb of beef in their lap, but the cell phone law was obeyed. Explain how great the cell phone ban thing is to a grieving family member seeing their loved one in ICU or a coffin.

And what if I am operating my pickup out on cropland or pasture? it's moving, so the phone would be jammed, as per some folk's mindset here. That is ridiculous. See, many do not stand back and take a broad view of what goes on in the world. They seem to think that everyone else's life and driving routines are just like theirs. Not everyone runs their vehicles up and down freeways and metro areas. My pickup, maybe, might see a 4 lane road or a metro area twice a month at best.

You see, these blanket laws have no basis in reality for many folks. That is why folks, including me, tend to ignore and ridicule them many times. If phones are made so that they don't function if the vehicle is moving, people will find a way around it, and we will be right back where we started. So laws like that make no sense, and just make criminals out of honest citizens. Ah, but it is a revenue stream for the cop shop!